Najib Razak seeks to remove Malaysia's top judge from graft appeal
The HinduFormer Prime Minister Najib Razak sought on August 23 to remove Malaysia's top judge from the final appeal against his 12-year prison sentence in a graft case linked to the massive looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund, saying she may not be impartial. In a new twist, Najib Razak said in his application that the husband of Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat, who is leading a five-member Federal Court Bench, had been critical about his leadership over the 1MDB scandal. In his affidavit read out in court his lawyer, Najib said Zamani Ibrahim had, in a Facebook post right after Najib's ouster in 2018 general elections, concluded that Najib “had siphoned sovereign government funds" into his personal account. As such, the court's findings may be seen as “tainted with bias and the public perception of the independence of the judiciary will be in doubt," Najib said in his application.